Why the feds smashed Megaupload

The MPAA [said] "This criminal case, more than two years in development, shows that law enforcement can take strong action to protect American intellectual property stolen through sites housed in the United States."---------So... why do we need to throw away even more of our rights with SOPA?

Because the *AAs do not want to spend two years on a single site. Two minutes tops, and let the lawyers handle any fallout...

Why do the US do anything when it comes to other countries? Because they can. It's amusing how the most corrupt country in the world seem to be "co-operative" when they want something but "up yours, I'm an American" when someone approaches them.

One country asserting it's law on another country is just plain bonkers. I am never surprised when people target these a-holes for bombs and worse terror attacks, they deserve everything they get.

That's just because you're ignorant about how the world works. If you want to be angry at anybody about that state of affairs, it should be your government officials who signed the extradition treaty. Nobody held a gun to their heads.

I am not saying that distribution of illegal content is ok, but killing all other legitimate content as a sort of a "collateral damage" in this case is surely not ok and I would like to suggest the course of action in this case.

They should get together and file a class-action suit against the US government and involved parties (RIAA, MPAA, etc), and seek damage claims for:

- Lost content- Lost access to the content- Lost service that has been paid for- Inconvenience caused to those usually served with the content (themselves if it was private data)- Financial loss (in form of subscription fees and lost revenue if any)

If they did that, then the US government and others involved would have to pony up more cash than they seek in damages from MegaUpload. That would teach them an important lesson not to wield an axe so unselectivelly.

That won't work. You are theoretically entitled to get whatever property of yours has been seized back once they're done with it, but you can't sue for damages. Remember, the government is automatically immune from any lawsuit, except under circumstances where they specifically allow you to sue.

There's no doubt that the indictment makes Megaupload look bad, though, and we're quite curious to see what comes of the case—especially once the site has a chance to respond.

It's difficult but it's important in politically charged issues like this to not have the existence of an indictment by itself look bad. What's important is what evidence is brought when what is said in the indictment has to be proven to be true.

myke66 - I'd imagine that they have investigations going on those other sites too.

To everybody who had legitimate files on MegaUpload, I'm sorry the servers are no longer there. If that's the ONLY place that had the files, that seems awfully risky to me. Local backups and all that, especially on a site that's infamous for hosting infringing content. Generally anytime there's an investigation into a crime where a computer is involved, said equipment is usually confiscated as part of discovery.

Now that there are more file storage services that seem aimed at legitimate uses, it might be time to investigate using them, or even using multiple of these shady sites for your legit files so if another goes belly up your files are still reachable.

The lines do get blurry - youtube, for instance, seemed to be built on infringing material, still has a lot up there, but seems to be - now - toeing the DMCA take down line. Yes, DMCA take downs do get abused, and I'd like to see some repercussions for asking files to be taken down that aren't owned by the party making the request, but it seems a reasonable compromise when there's so much out there that does infringe. Edit: I'd also like to see more repercussions for files that are clearly fair use being taken down.

There seem to be two groups of angry people posting. One who had legitimate files up there that seem miffed the servers were taken down as part of an investigation, and another who just don't seem to believe in copyright at all. To the second group, America isn't the only country in the world to have copyright. I'll agree that the recent life +70 is ridiculous, but, c'mon, nearly every country in the world had copyright laws before any international treaties were signed. The mere existence of copyright isn't America forcing it's will upon you. (ACTA and DMCA alikes, I'll grant, are, but this case doesn't seem like it fits that bill.) To both groups - how do you propose people who own copyrights should proceed to protect their works?

The FBI worked with local law enforcement, this went through the judicial process, and there seems to be evidence that the hosting sites knew the bulk of their $$$ was coming from infringing files, and did what they could to make take down requests ineffective.

I think most of us have the feeling that the vast majority of files downloaded from MegaUpload, RapidShare, The Pirate Bay and their ilk aren't black and white Mickey Mouse cartoons, they aren't movies and films that are 15+ years old, and probably aren't even legitimate Android ROMS, though all that was up there. The bulk of the content was probably T.V., movies, or music that have been released within the last few years in most cases*. I don't agree with SOPA or PIPA, but to anybody who believes at all in copyright, this seems to be a legitimate way of going about prosecuting those who appear to have flagrantly abused it.

* - It's a feeling. I doubt any of US have access to MegaUpload's *real* statistics.Edit: I'd expect that if such statistics were kept, it'd be part of the court case.

Why do the US do anything when it comes to other countries? Because they can. It's amusing how the most corrupt country in the world seem to be "co-operative" when they want something but "up yours, I'm an American" when someone approaches them.

One country asserting it's law on another country is just plain bonkers. I am never surprised when people target these a-holes for bombs and worse terror attacks, they deserve everything they get.

That's just because you're ignorant about how the world works. If you want to be angry at anybody about that state of affairs, it should be your government officials who signed the extradition treaty. Nobody held a gun to their heads.

If we're talking about being ignorant about how the world works potentially the signing of the extradition treaty may have been attached to anything from disaster relief to removal of sanctions.

I am not saying that distribution of illegal content is ok, but killing all other legitimate content as a sort of a "collateral damage" in this case is surely not ok and I would like to suggest the course of action in this case.

They should get together and file a class-action suit against the US government and involved parties (RIAA, MPAA, etc), and seek damage claims for:

- Lost content- Lost access to the content- Lost service that has been paid for- Inconvenience caused to those usually served with the content (themselves if it was private data)- Financial loss (in form of subscription fees and lost revenue if any)

If they did that, then the US government and others involved would have to pony up more cash than they seek in damages from MegaUpload. That would teach them an important lesson not to wield an axe so unselectivelly.

Any lawyer that took this case deserves to be disbarred. This is SOP in investigations of this type.

Why do the US do anything when it comes to other countries? Because they can. It's amusing how the most corrupt country in the world seem to be "co-operative" when they want something but "up yours, I'm an American" when someone approaches them.

One country asserting it's law on another country is just plain bonkers. I am never surprised when people target these a-holes for bombs and worse terror attacks, they deserve everything they get.

Such an angry person, it makes me sad to think you believe this is properly reciprocated though violence.

All because they took away your favorite bootlegging site.

He's not complaining about Megaupload at all. That's just some silly ad hom you invented to brush off his actual message which was that America enforces its will on the rest of the world through violence all the time and the will of America is all to often corrupted by corporate interests just like in this case.

Yeah because this is just an American practice. England never uses its influence on other countries. France either. Germany on my god they like would never force the rest of Europe to make drastic cuts in services. Cuba never plays games in their circle of influence. China nope never. India not at all. Iran either. Its just the US.

I would be all for shutting it down if they followed DUE PROCESS. Did it? Was there a judge who reviewed the content? Were the owners of Mega allowed to put up a defense before they were shuttered? If not, this is what the problem is about. There should be fair hearings in front of an impartial judge and jury BEFORE action is taken. It used to be we were innocent until proven guilty. Now, we're guilty if the RIAA and MPAA says so. So long to our freedoms and rights. Hello greedy corporate bastards and crooked politicians.

Of course they were aware that some of the content on their site infringed copyright.

To me, what is more damning is instead the fact that they capped the number of complaints that rightsholders could make each day. If there are more infringing items than that, then they're ensuring that infringing content remains up. Had they been sincerely complying with the DMCA, then there should not have been arrests, but this indicates that they weren't.

I would be all for shutting it down if they followed DUE PROCESS. Did it? Was there a judge who reviewed the content? Were the owners of Mega allowed to put up a defense before they were shuttered? If not, this is what the problem is about. There should be fair hearings in front of an impartial judge and jury BEFORE action is taken. It used to be we were innocent until proven guilty. Now, we're guilty if the RIAA and MPAA says so. So long to our freedoms and rights. Hello greedy corporate bastards and crooked politicians.

Please review the due process before you question whether or not it was used. This is a grand jury indictment, meaning the defense didn't need to be present for the grand jury to present the indictment that will bring them to trial, the proper venue for the accused to defend themselves.

As for the seizure of their servers, it's what happens when evidence is collected, which I'm sure they had a warrant for (and if they didn't, we'll know soon enough).

The only problem I see is your unfamiliarity with the U.S. criminal justice system. Excusable if you're not an American citizen, and a crying shame if you are.

I wanted to download a photoshop brush today and guess where it was hosted... Megaupload...

Good thing they host in two file locker sites... wonder how long it will be until the other is shut down. Hopefully these sites have backups because obviously they could lose every free brush available on their site.

If all the internal email stuff that they're saying is true, I'd support this. It is a little odd in how thoroughly they've gone after the site, but I'm not opposed to legitimate anti-piratical action.

Why do we need SOPA/PIPA if they can already do this?

The SOPA is made to do something to the sites hosted in uncooperative jurisdictions - for those SOPA allows to address the US-based payment providers and ad services (e.g. paypal, google) that are supplying them with money earning the revenue share. There's been a great deal of nonsense published against SOPA, missing one simple little fact: far more severe punishment than anything defined in the SOPA is already available against anyone who is not in uncooperative jurisdiction. The reason SOPA is so opposed is because it would e.g. force google to blacklist copyright infringers to same extent to which google already blacklists search engine spammers (such as zillions of the perfectly legal mirrors of wikipedia created for search engine spamming purposes). Google of course does not want to do that. 5 years ago Google had legitimate defence that it is just a search tool and can't blacklist infringers. Now Google is very effective at blacklisting the spam.

I would be all for shutting it down if they followed DUE PROCESS. Did it? Was there a judge who reviewed the content? Were the owners of Mega allowed to put up a defense before they were shuttered? If not, this is what the problem is about. There should be fair hearings in front of an impartial judge and jury BEFORE action is taken. It used to be we were innocent until proven guilty. Now, we're guilty if the RIAA and MPAA says so. So long to our freedoms and rights. Hello greedy corporate bastards and crooked politicians.

Please review the due process before you question whether or not it was used. This is a grand jury indictment, meaning the defense didn't need to be present for the grand jury to present the indictment that will bring them to trial, the proper venue for the accused to defend themselves.

As for the seizure of their servers, it's what happens when evidence is collected, which I'm sure they had a warrant for (and if they didn't, we'll know soon enough).

The only problem I see is your unfamiliarity with the U.S. criminal justice system. Excusable if you're not an American citizen, and a crying shame if you are.

Thank you. Its amazing the amount of ignorence in the conspircy theory err internet priate apologist. As some one already said in one of these stories here its as if the opposition of SOPA is all about someone taking away there free stuff. As many of them do not even know what due process is and yet that was allegedly what they were worried about.

The indictment goes after six individuals, who between them owned 14 Mercedes-Benz automobiles with license plates such as "POLICE," "MAFIA," "V," "STONED," "CEO," "HACKER," GOOD," "EVIL," and—perhaps presciently—"GUILTY." The group also had a 2010 Maserati, a 2008 Rolls-Royce, and a 1989 Lamborghini. They had not one but three Samsung 83" TVs, and two Sharp 108" TVs. Someone owned a "Predator statue." Motor bikes, jet skis, artwork, and even 60 Dell servers could all be forfeit to the government if it can prove its case against the members of the "Mega Conspiracy.

It seems you publish it to create a bias opinion on the character of the alleged "pirates." Hardly Objective.

Given that the defendants haven't provided any defense that I know of, and they're basically having to write this off the indictment that the government released, and from consulting a lawyer for an opinion on the charges, I don't see the issue in it.

A so-called journalist is using highly prejudicial information that likely would not pass muster in an actual court to create spin rather than dedicating more space to useful information. It's clearly meant to be inflammatory rather than probative. This kind of nonsense is why old school news outlets are in danger. They produce crap product and the marks (customers) can tell they're being conned.

Why do the US do anything when it comes to other countries? Because they can. It's amusing how the most corrupt country in the world seem to be "co-operative" when they want something but "up yours, I'm an American" when someone approaches them.

One country asserting it's law on another country is just plain bonkers. I am never surprised when people target these a-holes for bombs and worse terror attacks, they deserve everything they get.

It ain't American laws per se, New Zealand also has copyright laws so it's natural we would extradite these greedy losers.

Um, except that no, that was not a parody. The big media mafiaa (Hollywood) can kiss my ass. They are ruthlessly fighting a war against the public rights, and are therefore the enemy, and I WILL NOT FUND THE ENEMY.

What public right would that be?

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You imply that I was caught breaking the rules and my post was sour grapes. I subscribed to MU/MV to transfer large files between friends (a legitimate service they provided), and to watch old episodes of TV shows that had already been publicly broadcast in the past.

So what they where broadcast in the public in the past. Did you watch these programs with commericals as they were orgininal broadcast? In the rare event that they did not have commericals did you pay for the broadcast service fee? If no to either you have no right to them.

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The last few months of my subscription has now been stolen from me, regardless of its legality, because of a media mafia fight (this legal action).

You should sue MU. They are the ones not fullfiling the agreement that you had between them.

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Was this whole thing so life and death that they couldn't use legal means to stop all new subscriptions, let the old ones play out, and then wind the whole thing down however the evidence justified? Nope, they just dropped the nuke hammer and threw away my money. Fuck them. Contrary to the hysteria, the sky was not falling.

Well lets not bother with any enforcement of laws except for attempted murder, rape, kidnapping and murder then. I mean someone breaking into your home when you are not home is not life or death. Someone stealing a car is not life or death.

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And if the TV show public uploading and watching was illegal, then it shouldn't be as far as I'm concerned. That was the general public using new media to provide a new service for ourselves, at our own expense, that corporate interests have otherwise failed to provide, with content WE already had public access to anyways.

Really you paid for the sets? You paid for the actors? You paid for the music used in the performance? You paid for the food on the set? You paid for insurance? Or the hundreds of other line items?

Thats right you are a freeloader and let others pay for the content.

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You can be big media's moral supporter, and believe that every current IP law is God's own perfected ethical truth, whatever you and I believe is irrelevant anyways.

I actually like to watch programing and listen to music that has actual producation value. That is mixed but experts that know what they are doing. Oh and I am not a free loader.

Would be interesting to compare those plates to the kind of stuff found on Wall Street or in Silicon Valley.

Or anywhere else with strong type 'A' personalities or expressive people. Wall Street, despite being popular to hate on at the moment, is hardly the bastion of vanity plates. You'll find as many or more in Hollywood, the music industry, owned by doctors, soccer moms, car enthusiasts, etc. Hating on Wall Street is played out, give it a rest.

Dream on. The effects of Wall Streets latest Ponzi schemes are still being felt. It's not over by a long shot.

Um, except that no, that was not a parody. The big media mafiaa (Hollywood) can kiss my ass. They are ruthlessly fighting a war against the public rights, and are therefore the enemy, and I WILL NOT FUND THE ENEMY.

What public right would that be?

Public domain, obviously. Keep up.

jimisawesome wrote:

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The last few months of my subscription has now been stolen from me, regardless of its legality, because of a media mafia fight (this legal action).

You should sue MU. They are the ones not fullfiling the agreement that you had between them.

Obviously they would fulfill the agreement if their shit wasn't confiscated. Keep fishing.

Oh, fabulous. When do the Feds get around to indicting Goldman Sachs et al for gaming and crashing the economy? Leaving the US Treasury on the hook for TWENTY-FOUR TRILLION DOLLARS. Pirates? Movies? Who gives a (*@#? There's no comparison between the crimes of the 'too big to fail' banks and Megaupload.

WHEN DO THE BANKS GET PROSECUTED? This is backasswards.

Stop blaming the banks.

Sure, they weren't the ones writing all of the bad loans. "The devil made them do it".

That kind of argument went out with the middle ages.

It was a feeding frenzy because no one had to live with the consequences of their actions. That still does not absolve a random member of the corresponding rampaging mob from moral and ethical or even financial responsibility for their actions.

An individual would never get a free pass based on your kind of argument.

Although ultimately the most damage was not in fact done by the bad mortgages but by the fact that they were repackaged and declared good. That little lie trashed the the rest of the finance sector. THAT was not something that comes with a politically convenient "devil made me do it" argument.

Um, except that no, that was not a parody. The big media mafiaa (Hollywood) can kiss my ass. They are ruthlessly fighting a war against the public rights, and are therefore the enemy, and I WILL NOT FUND THE ENEMY.

What public right would that be?

Public domain, obviously. Keep up.

There are also individual personal property rights, first sale rights and fair use.

Most of these Big Content shenanigans are very much against the rights of the individual.

A so-called journalist is using highly prejudicial information that likely would not pass muster in an actual court to create spin rather than dedicating more space to useful information. It's clearly meant to be inflammatory rather than probative. This kind of nonsense is why old school news outlets are in danger. They produce crap product and the marks (customers) can tell they're being conned.

I believe that is information from the actual indictment, which means it passes muster. Either way, it does go to show where the profits garnered are now located so that the assets can be frozen.

I can understand why they formed the company. I can understand that once they learned that many of their subscribers were sharing copyrighted material, they looked the other way. I can see why they wanted to give the veneer of legitimacy. I can even understand that huge sums of "easy" money can make some people do loony things, like buy a Mercedes Benz or two with silly license plates.

I can understand why users would subscribe to the service. Maybe the movies, music wasn't available in their region. Maybe the pirated material was better in some way (no unskippable stuff, etc). Or maybe they just didn't want to pay the 10 bucks for the DVD.

What I don't understand is how some people look at Megaupload as some sort revolutionary hero. They made their millions illegally, they had a good time, and the good times are now over. Now you got some poor schmucks pretending to be a part of the revolution.

Um, except that no, that was not a parody. The big media mafiaa (Hollywood) can kiss my ass. They are ruthlessly fighting a war against the public rights, and are therefore the enemy, and I WILL NOT FUND THE ENEMY.

What public right would that be?

Public domain, obviously. Keep up.

Cute and all. But lets be real here. Unless you want to eliminate IP protections or limit it to 3 months the stuff that is pirated the most is going to have IP protections.

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jimisawesome wrote:

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The last few months of my subscription has now been stolen from me, regardless of its legality, because of a media mafia fight (this legal action).

You should sue MU. They are the ones not fullfiling the agreement that you had between them.

Obviously they would fulfill the agreement if their shit wasn't confiscated. Keep fishing.

You don't know how contract law works do you? You sign an agreement with Company A for a service. Company A relies on Company B for a part of their workflow. Company B can not fulfil this requriment. Its still Company A's responsiblity. Company A can try to go after Company B but you can't. Unless its in the contract stating that Company A might default on the contract due to company B.

I disagree with everything you've said here, and I hate you for your lick-spittle attitude. The world you admire is one I want to see burnt to the ground so that something humane can flourish. I think it's more mature to just admit that and move on, instead of nattering endlessly on about it, since we'll never see eye to eye anyways. Have a nice life.

Well, I mean honestly, does this surprise anyone? I mean come the fuck on, the fact that MegaUpload was [b]THE[\b] bastion for finding copyrighted material free of charge, was possibly the worst kept secret on the interwebs. I for one, figured they were smart enough to have all of their servers in some far off Eastern European server cluster. But nope. Over 500 hosted a stones through from Washington D.C.

I would be 100% behind copyright laws and enforcement if it guaranteed that it put more money in the pockets of those producing the copyrighted content. But it doesn't. It just lines the pockets of those who would make Hitler and Stalin blush.

I wonder if the fact that there was copyrighted material being hosted has no relation whatsoever to whether or not the site operators had knowledge of whether the uploaders owned the copyright is completely lost on Ars?

And I wonder if it will be addressed in court, or completely swept under the rug by puppet prosecutors and ignoramus jurors?

Oh, fabulous. When do the Feds get around to indicting Goldman Sachs et al for gaming and crashing the economy? Leaving the US Treasury on the hook for TWENTY-FOUR TRILLION DOLLARS. Pirates? Movies? Who gives a (*@#? There's no comparison between the crimes of the 'too big to fail' banks and Megaupload.

WHEN DO THE BANKS GET PROSECUTED? This is backasswards.

Stop blaming the banks.

Sure, they weren't the ones writing all of the bad loans.

Right, it was predominantly the government-mandated or -incentivized giving of loans to high-risk people that was the riskiest behavior and the most potentially damaging, with a big chunk of those loans done via Fannie and Freddie. And it's worth noting that this push was led by some big-name Democrats, lest we falsely assume it was a GOP boondoggle. Democrats are good at ruining the economy via pie-in-the-sky social programs that fail, just like Republicans are good at doing the same via wars or fear. Love that two-party system!

Oh and to the person who claimed to identify two groups of people that are angry in this thread (one being people who had legit files that are no longer accessible and the other group being a bunch of crazed pirates), you're missing a third category that some of us fall in that are not in either of the other two groups: People disappointed in the manner in which this event has been reported (both by the government and by the media). Some of us appreciate the legal system and that what MU did was not legal, and we also feel for the folks who lost their legit files, but the part that actually bothers us is the apparent reporting bias and the way the gov't leaks details to influence the reader. It's essentially a form of propaganda and it's sad we're already to the point where we're complacent about it.

I disagree with everything you've said here, and I hate you for your lick-spittle attitude. The world you admire is one I want to see burnt to the ground so that something humane can flourish. I think it's more mature to just admit that and move on, instead of nattering endlessly on about it, since we'll never see eye to eye anyways. Have a nice life.

I hear Somalia is nice this time of year. That is a country were there is no IP laws or few other laws and no pesky POLICE STATE or EBIL MPAA.

Oh, fabulous. When do the Feds get around to indicting Goldman Sachs et al for gaming and crashing the economy? Leaving the US Treasury on the hook for TWENTY-FOUR TRILLION DOLLARS. Pirates? Movies? Who gives a (*@#? There's no comparison between the crimes of the 'too big to fail' banks and Megaupload.

I'm not sure where you get 24 trillion dollars from but in any case pointing the finger at somebody else doing something "more wrong" does not excuse the criminal behavior going on at MegaUpload.

I'm against scummy corporate banks that handed out loans like candy, scummy politicians that pressured banks to give out subprime loans for "equality", and scummy pirate millionaires along with their scummy defenders who know damn well what is making them money. OH BUT BUT BUT just shut up already, stop insulting the intelligence of everyone here.

Right, it was predominantly the government-mandated or -incentivized giving of loans to high-risk people that was the riskiest behavior and the most potentially damaging, with a big chunk of those loans done via Fannie and Freddie. And it's worth noting that this push was led by some big-name Democrats, lest we falsely assume it was a GOP boondoggle.

As much as I am against Fannie and Freddie there is another side which is that Wall St. was buying up sub-prime loans as if they were a commodity. Banks would just rubber stamp any loan and then pass off the risk to investors. The crash would have happened without F&F. But Democrats certainly made it worse by essentially race-pressuring banks to hand out subprime loans in minority areas.

I am not saying that distribution of illegal content is ok, but killing all other legitimate content as a sort of a "collateral damage" in this case is surely not ok and I would like to suggest the course of action in this case.

They should get together and file a class-action suit against the US government and involved parties (RIAA, MPAA, etc), and seek damage claims for:

- Lost content- Lost access to the content- Lost service that has been paid for- Inconvenience caused to those usually served with the content (themselves if it was private data)- Financial loss (in form of subscription fees and lost revenue if any)

If they did that, then the US government and others involved would have to pony up more cash than they seek in damages from MegaUpload. That would teach them an important lesson not to wield an axe so unselectivelly.

Any lawyer that took this case deserves to be disbarred. This is SOP in investigations of this type.

1. There is no standard operating procedure.2. There is even less so when you flex your government muscles in foreign country3. There was a legitimate way of taking down infringing content and leaving other content alone

With all that in mind they did what causes them the least amount of work and expense -- flip the on/off switch instead of having to weed out the infringing content and leave the other stuff and the service itself alone.

With SOPA and PIPA they would have even less obstacles before flipping the switch and that is simply put scary.

Finally, the US (or any other country for that matter) should have no right to enforce its laws outside of their territory.